The highway traversed through gorgeous mountainscapes, cliffside tunnels, and picturesque river valleys, amid rain, waterfalls, and fog in Yoho, Glacier, and Revelstoke National Parks. Once we reached Revelstoke, we needed some lunch. We happened upon a tasty ski-town bakery/brewery and I just had to order some poutine before we left Canada. The kids were not interested in even trying poutine, and I honestly don't get the big deal about fries with cheese curds and gravy...
By mid-afternoon we rolled into our hotel in Kelowna, BC. This hotel had waterslides in their pool area, so you can guess what the first request was after we got into our room!
After dinner, we ventured to a local brewery. It was such a cool place - an old 2-story tobacco warehouse that has been converted into lots of unique seating areas, a counter in a Winnebago-like trailer, a bowling alley, bocce court, and picnic tables. We taught the kids how to play 31 and had a good ol' time. (Until Hadley lost, that is... but that's another story for another time.)
Then I suggested that we walk a couple of blocks to Kelowna's Waterfront Park on Okanagan Lake. What a lovely little city! We were sad that Vancouver couldn't fit on this trip's agenda, but Kelowna was a great substitute.
More lake water! But this water wasn't nearly as cold as that in Banff, and it was so pretty and soothing at sunset.
How many pictures do I have of these two playing in sand?! A lot! But they have such a wonderful time doing that at every beach, I guess I feel compelled to try to capture some of the joy on film. Did it work?
The next day we were USA-bound! Kelowna is considered to be in both wine and lake country, which was pretty obvious on our way south of the city. Vineyards and orchards abound along lots of lakeshore almost all the way to the border. I didn't get a great picture, since I was driving for most of that stretch, but I did get one that gives an idea. (No, I wasn't driving at the time!)
The border agent let us go despite our possession of Canadian bananas and a souvenir ornament, and we crossed back into the land of working cell phones and green currency.
A night in Washington, another in Idaho, more hotel pools, more Elvis sandwiches (PB, banana, and honey), and we were nearly home. But mostly, it was a lot of time in the car for 3 days, and not much that was picture-worthy. We did stop randomly in Oregon for a pit stop and more Elvis sandwiches (ugh, no more of those for a long time!) near Weatherby. We realized, once we pulled in, that we had stopped at this same rest stop a few years prior (de ja vu), and it had some interesting history about the nearby Oregon Trail.
Pretty exciting to make these kind of long road trips now that we have two experienced travelers riding with us! I will say that two weeks felt like maybe too long to be on vacation together...? But, we did it and we survived and thrived. Next vacation may be a beach house in one place though...
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